Rachel Maddow and Alex Wagner Lead MSNBC’s Coverage of Donald Trump’s First 100 Days

President-elect Donald Trump has big plans for the first 100 days of his administration—and so does MSNBC. With one week to go until Trump’s second inauguration, the network has unveiled an ambitious array of programming set to run from January to April. And much of it is aimed squarely at MSNBC’s core demo: progressive viewers concerned about what those first 100 days will bring in Washington, D.C. and beyond.

As a signal of how committed the network is to re-engaging with that audience, Rachel Maddow is coming off the “once a week” bench and returning to a Monday thru Friday schedule at 9 p.m. ET from Jan. 20 to April 30. (All times Eastern.) The Rachel Maddow Show has been a Monday-only program since 2022 as its host has taken on additional projects for MSNBC, including podcasts and documentaries.

Maddow’s presence in the 9 p.m. hour remains a reliable ratings performer for the network. As recently as last week, The Rachel Maddow Show was MSNBC’s highest-rated show on Mondays, with over 1.6 million total viewers and 117,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demo.

Maddow’s return to a full week schedule does mean that Alex Wagner Tonight is temporarily taking some time off. But Wagner herself is keeping busy as a roving reporter for the new series Trumpland: The First 100 Days.

Per MSNBC, Trumpland will send Wagner across the U.S. to report on how the new administration is impacting specific cities and communities. She’ll be on the road until the end of April, with The Rachel Maddow Show and Alex Wagner Tonight returning to their regular schedules on May 1.

“The moment we’re in requires us to cover the early days of the new administration from all over the country,” MSNBC’s president Rashida Jones said in a statement. “No one is better equipped to bring those stories from the field to MSNBC viewers than our intrepid Alex Wagner.”

Maddow and Wagner aren’t the only MSNBC personalities who will be keeping extra-busy over the next 100 days. All of the network’s primetime anchors—whose dedicated fans are willing to follow them to Brooklyn and beyond—are taking on additional assignments.

Jen Psaki, for example, will host the new podcast The Blueprint, which will chronicle the Democratic party’s path out of the electoral wilderness. Meanwhile, Joy Reid plans to pay close attention to how Trump fulfills the many promises he made on the campaign trail about how he’ll address the economy, education and other hot-button issues.

Elsewhere, Chris Hayes will spearhead a recurring segment called Here is What is True, while The Beat’s Ari Melber also plans to be on the fact-checking beat; Nicole Wallace plans additional installments of her American Autocracy segments on Deadline: White House; Lawrence O’Donnell will set aside time on The Last Word to analyze Congress’ role in Trump’s first 100 days; and Stephanie Ruhle will continue her exploration of America’s many and varied billionaires via her Money, Power, Politics segment.

MSNBC’s full-court press on chronicling the launch of the second Trump administration follows a turbulent post-election period during which the network experienced significant ratings declines as weary viewers tuned out of news. Its flagship morning show Morning Joe also suffered backlash—and viewership drops—after co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski announced that they had a private meeting with Trump in Florida.

“Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different,” Brzezinski noted at the time. “And that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him.”

While MSNBC’s ratings haven’t completely bounced back to their pre-election heights, the network did see gains during the week where the calendar turned from 2024 to 2025. And that momentum could continue as Trump heads back into the Oval Office and the impacts of his administration become more keenly felt.

Looming over the rest of the year, of course, is MSNBC’s impending split from the NBCUniversal News Group as part of SpinCo—the new venture that will house many of NBCUniversal’s cable assets, including CNBC. The process of unwinding both cable news networks is expected to take much of 2025 and could see MSNBC leaving its longtime home inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza for another location.